Biddeford and Saco Rotary - Newsletter

Have an announcement? Send your Rotary news to Helene.plourde@kennebunksavings.com. Notices received by noon on Monday will be included in the TACK for that week.

WEEK IN REVIEW

March 31, 2010

One of the highlights of this week's meeting was the presentation by Past President Don of a $5,000 check to Tom Lachance to help with the renovation of the Old Orchard Beach ball park. We have not done a project in OOB for quite a few years and this was the perfect opportunity

to "step to the plate!" Once complete, this park will be a great asset for our communities. PE Julie introduced Visiting Rotarians and guests.

"Cheerio" Chuck gave us an update on the festivities planned for our 90th Anniversary Celebration in May. There's lots planned to entertain

us as well as our guests from the Bideford, England Club. If you haven't responded, please do so ASAP.

The incoming GSE team from India will be arriving soon and we'll have the chance to meet them at a BBQ at the Y. Watch for details! Roland reminded us of the District Assembly on April 10th. Roland is working on a project to collect crutches , walkers and canes to be sent to Africa.

Let him know if you can help. Earl has been known to sell a few winning raffle tickets in his day so it was only fair that he should be a winner too as he won this week's 50/50 raffle.

Sergeant at Arms Karen was quick to gather Happy and not so Happy $$'s.

As I had to scoot, following is Chuck's report on the Group Study Exchange's (GSE) trip to India.

Our District 7780, 2010 Group Study Exchange went to India. Heading up the trip was Jim Price from So. Portland and he was one of our two guest speakers. The other speaker was Alex Fabish, one of the four team members. They told us a great deal in the 20 minutes that they had to speak. First and foremost, the Rotarians in India are very friendly. Many times neither our team members or the host Rotarians had any idea what each were saying -- but all got along very well anyway. Rotarians in India like to dress up, sing, and dance at every opportunity. Another thing we learned was that in India a start time for anything is only a suggestion. If a meeting is to start at 10am --- it could be 12 noon before it really starts. The diet in India is mostly all vegetarian. There were little or no meats (i.e. no Big Mac's). Driving in India is much like driving in England --- but with out any rules. The one most important driving rule you need to remember in India is -- "There are no rules!" One other rule to remember is that all animals have the right-of-way. Every town our team visited in the hundreds of miles journey through India had something they wanted to show the team. A factory, a building, a park, etc. They visited a Hospital for several reasons. The greatest being that several (if not all) team members became very sick. Alex said he was sick most of the time he was in India. They guessed that the water may have been the culprit. The Hospitals were an eye opener as the patients were kept in big dorm style rooms with 20 plus patients in each. Reminiscent of some time many of us spent in the military in basic training. Sanitation was questionable. They had a wonderful time at the India District Conference and as you would expect, there was a lot of dress-up, singing, and dancing. Other than the sickness, they had a great time and made many new friends.

Thanks Chuck for taking the notes.

Fellow Biddeford–Saco Rotarians

For the past two weeks I’ve wanted to do the following exercise but didn’t want to take up a lot of time doing it.

I wanted to thank certain people for the work they did on the auction, and to ask them to stand up as their name was called.

So it would have gone down something like this.

I want to thank:

Julie V. for “all” that she did for the auction, there is no way this auction would have been as successful with out Julie’s hard work.

Earl G. "The Hammer" for being our Solicitation Chair and responsible for over 495 items collected.

Andy G. for being our official photographer.

Lucy D. for allowing us to use her Credit Union for the storage of the auction items,

and for our committee meetings, and for the help her employees provided to us in keeping track of the inventory.

Jim M. for allowing us to use his business for the storage of the large items, and

for going above and beyond in providing pick up service for some of those items.

Roland E. for selling sponsorships to all our auction boards.

Karen C, for all her help with public relations.

Dennis E. for coordinating the set up and tear down of the auction.

Frank G. for coordinating the phone bank, operators, phone lines and providing instructions to the operators.

George W. for his hard work in Tabulations

Roland E. for being the “all day” floor manager.

Heather G. for show director.

Ken F. for show director..

Randy F. for providing food and liquid refreshments

Scott S. for his help in writing the “script”.

Keith J. for managing the MC’s and auctioneers.

All our Auctioneers, and MC’s.

Don L., Bernice W., Julie V. and Papa Kany for the phone bank sponsorship from Saco & Biddeford Savings

Bill K. & Keith J. for allowing us to store our Rotary phone number at Smith & Elliott all year long without charge to our Rotary Club.

Steve M. for being the official pre bid sorter.

Keith G. for testing and re wiring the phone lines.

Jackson B ., Josh F .and Randy F. for display management.

Jim G. for the donation of numerous big board items and several board sponsorships.

Roland E. Tom W. for numerous board sponsorship

If you worked the auction on Saturday or Sunday, please stand up.

If you Solicited items for the auction, please stand up.

If your company sponsored a board or donated items to the auction, please stand up.

At this point I envisioned the entire club standing up and would have said how amazed I was to see that this project requires the work of the entire club, and once again the entire club came through to make this year’s auction a huge success.

So thank you one and all for the hard work that you put into this project. Now watch how the fruits of your labor are put to good use throughout the remainder of this year and into the next.

(If I left anyone out it was not intentional, just the poor memory of an almost senior citizen. So, my apologies and please forgive me if your name is not mentioned above).

Thanks to all again,

Frank Dumais

And I'm sure you all join me in extending a BIG THANK YOU to FRANK for all his efforts!!

Hope to see you all tomorrow.

Helene, Ye Editor

Neil’s Motors, Inc.

Quickprint Color Center

Saco Biddeford Savings Bank

Southern Maine Medical Center